Aphantasia is a phenomenon which affects the ability to voluntarily create visual pictures in the mind’s eye. For example, someone with aphantasia will be unable to or only to create a dim and fleeting image of, say, an apple in their minds eye. If someone has aphantasia it means that they are either not able to generate voluntary visual imagery at all, or their ability to do so is very poor. It is best understood as a type of neurodiversity.
You can take the test yourself to find out if you have aphantasia! The most common way of finding out if you have aphantasia is to complete the Vividness of Visual Mental Imagery scale, which you can learn more about and take on this page of our website.
Around 4% of the population experience aphantasia.
It’s most accurate to refer to aphantasia as a type of neurodiversity. It should not be understood as a disorder. Whilst their might be some small drawbacks to aphantasia (e.g., having a reduced ability to recall life events) the vast majority of people with aphantasia do not experience any great difficulties associated with it, and in fact there are a number of small benefits to having aphantasia as well. This includes having a protective effect from being overwhelmed by your senses, and from worry.
This is great question, that comes up a lot, but unfortunately the answer is a little unclear at present. Aphantasia generally refers to voluntary imagery, where dreams are involuntary. But there’s mixed data on whether aphantasia might affect involuntary imagery too. Some people with aphantasia report dreaming visually, but others report not doing so.
If you have aphantasia and would like to join our testing pool there is a link to get involved on this page of our website. You will be asked to answer questions about your imagery ability and your email address. We would then contact you via email when we have a study running and you can choose whether or not to participate.